The analogy of tech salaries to returns on bonds only works, as other commentators have pointed out, when talking about programmers who have experience at a Big

The analogy of tech salaries to returns on bonds only works, as other commentators have pointed out, when talking about programmers who have experience at a Big N company and are being recruited into well funded startups. In this case, it works because startups (corporate bonds) have to offer a higher compensation (interest rate), often times made up of equity, to offset the risk of joining a startup compared to Big N (government bonds). The uncertain outcome is the startup failing (company not meeting their expectations). The reason why it doesn’t generalize to the entire tech industry is because not everybody has Big N experience while anyone can buy a government bond.